Chapter Six
Ratification of the
Ordinance of Secession

The Ordinance of Secession was approved by the voters of Virginia on May 23, 1861. This
appears to have been viewed as merely a technicality, since the government of Virginia had
proceeded to align itself with the Confederacy and prepare for war. During the month following
the passage of the ordinance by the delegates at the Richmond Convention, citizens of western
Virginia gathered in communities and voiced their opposition to or support for the decision to
leave the Union. When Virginia Governor John Letcher announced that the ordinance had been
ratified by the citizens of Virginia by a vote of 125,950 to 20,373, many western Virginians were
outraged by his pronouncement that most of the votes from western Virginia had not been
delivered to Richmond. Due to the fact that many vote totals were lost, it is unclear how western
Virginians voted. Some historians believed that the overwhelming majority voted against
secession, but a detailed study by historian Richard Curry* concluded that a sizeable minority in
western Virginia voted for the Ordinance of Secession. The war that was splitting the nation was
now about to rend the state of Virginia.

"How Virginia Was Voted Out Of The Union"Harper's Weekly15 June 1861

*Richard O. Curry, A House Divided: A Study of Statehood Politics and the
Copperhead Movement in West Virginia (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh,
1964)